Standard Grant: A Case Study of How Re-Situation of Scientific Knowledge from Human Population Genomics Works

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This award supports a research project to generate knowledge of the actual use of the products of scientific research by others; it will provide insights concerning how objects of scientific knowledge, such as data and models, travel to other contexts and become re-situated. Remarkably little is known about the general and specific processes by which scientific findings from one field are actually used by researchers in other fields, and by others more generally. The project focuses on knowledge from the field of human population genomics. The researchers will develop a case study of resituating knowledge from human population genomics that focuses on two research university laboratories. The project will offer insight and recommendations from both STS and life-sciences perspectives on how to foster collaboration between life scientists and the individuals and communities they study, and between these and other stakeholders concerned with issues of race, ethnicity, identity, and health. The aim of this research project is to advance understanding how various objects of knowledge (models, datasets, findings, and software) in one field, human population genomics, are engaged by other audiences including scientists in other fields, the populations represented in the studies, and through various media. The researchers will use a combination of ethnographic fieldwork, archival study, concept tracking, citation analysis, and topic modeling methods to develop a detailed mechanistic account of how scientists produce, use and reuse in their workflows a variety of objects of scientific knowledge. This is a timely and important case study; the field of human population genomics is being reshaped by its enhanced use of hypothesis-driven and big data approaches, and its results influence global comparative biomedical research, policies of inclusion and access to health services, and collective and individual identity processes as patients and genomic data consumers appropriate or contest findings about themselves.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.